Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

This is a Fallen London exceptional story, which is something accessible only to members or those who pay extra money. It follows the mechanics of Fallen London but is completable in a few hours of time (or less if you pay for more actions).

This story deals with the Presbyterate, an underground empire that lives near the Mountain of life. They had a colony founded by separatists who had a mythical chalice that seems like a parallel to the Holy Grail. You encounter an archaeologist who leads you to the sea in search of this chalice.

This story gives you some pretty good agency as there are multiple directions you can influence the outcome. It has some rich and vivid imagery in the archaeological digs that does a good job of both being cool and showing the differences between the archaeologist's idealism and the more grey reality.

This one was pretty good. It didn't stand out as one I'll always remember but it was interesting enough that I used some action refreshes on it.

This was a fun game in a style different than that which I usually play. It's an ADRIFT game that is pretty long, with more than 8 'acts' and 43 rooms, but with puzzles that are locally self-contained and generally well-clued (with a couple of exceptions).

You show up to Sherlock Holmes' apartment determined to prove he is a fraud, only to discover it full of bullet holes and menacing notes. You have to track down Shakespeare and foil a plot by the evil Moriarty!

Much of the game can be completed by examining everything and showing things to people. The game is fortunately almost completely devoid of having to 'look behind' and 'under' everything (although looking under is useful in obvious cases).

I did use the hints a couple of times, and every time was for a window or door. The second to last puzzle (a grill) wasn't hinted and I struggled for a long time. I eventually opened up the game in the ADRIFT 4 coding app and found out that I had the right idea but the wrong direction (full spoiler: (Spoiler - click to show)I was trying to LOCK it but had to CLOSE it.).

Overall, I didn't encounter many bugs (a couple of times the screen just printed a single letter when I doubt that was what was desired; most likely because I was playing online). I had a good time with this game.

This is the only Spring Thing game that has never been reviewed on IFDB. I think I can see why; it's a longer game with a big, nonlinear map, a few different ways to die, and puzzles with difficult timing.

You play as a protestor at a nuclear facility who gets lost and then bitten by a camel. You wake up in a hospital with another protestor chained nearby. The hospital has a lot of floors, each with hallways filled with room. There are myriad keys and you have to do a variety of heroic actions that aren't well-clued.

You also gain the ability to bite hard and spit but the game doesn't spell this out and you almost never use them.

The story is interesting, but I remember an Emily Short blog post about how you should make a nonlinear game designed in a way that it's impossible to progress without encountering the story, and I think that would have benefitted this game a lot. Also, there could be more indication of when puzzles exist, as often there are things you need to do that you don't even know you need to do!

However, I do think people could enjoy this game and hope it gets more reviews.

I learned a lot playing this game.

I was most familiar with Richard Otter as the author of Word of the Day, one of the largest Inform works of all time in terms of wordcount. It did well in IFComp and even picked up a nomination for an XYZZY award. It was about a mystery in space and included tens of thousands of words on alien biology and evolution.

So I was surprised to see this 2009 Adrift 4 game that reference all of his previous games, of which there were a ton. I had no idea! I also didn't know that his username was Delron, which is the name of a website I've seen pop up a lot before. It also seems he had two earlier IFComp games that I had played and just not associated with his name.

This game is pretty big and I had some trouble and didn't know if the webplayer would save, so I used the walkthrough. It was like a guided tour of his games. Basically, there is 1-3 rooms for each game, and each world contains a piece of paper with the name of a game on it and a person who accepts the correct piece of paper for that world. Your goal is to match them up.

The most interesting worlds to me were the robot world of Unauthorized Termination, the world where you're a germ infesting a human, and the world where a decaying but alive Lion is in a room with a statue of King David after an apocalypse.

This game is one in which you pursue a metaphorical world, like Alice in Wonderland or the Phantom Tollbooth. It relies heavily on philosophical implications and interpretations. It is also just a demo.

It uses a parser system, except you choose from words given to you. You can proceed through much of the game by just repeatedly hitting enter, but there are parts where it branches out. I thought the system was really cool; it was hard to use at first but I eventually got into a rhythm with arrow keys and entering.

I never played this back in 2018; there were several games from that year that I never got around to for some reason. But I like it; it's too bad no sequel ever appeared. I did think their previous game 'Niney' was cool, though!

I remember seeing this game in Spring Thing years ago and didn't play it because I wasn't familiar with the games it was inspired by.

But I thought I'd try it anyway just now, and it worked fine as a standalone piece.

It's a mostly-linear twine story about a guy named Nigel and his space-traveling alien friend. The two of you go together to a mysterious asteroid where you encounter a variety of aliens.

There is a long lead-up of linear story followed by a more exploratory section.

The writing was interesting enough to hold my attention, and I felt like I had real agency in the choice-based parts. This doesn't look like it was ever finished, but the part I've played is fun.

This is a visual novel entered into Spring Thing about a decade ago.

In it, you play as a young woman torn between two brothers, one who is an evil murderer who is willing to harm you and uses dark magic, and another who is noble and wants to replace monarchy with democracy (this is a really hard choice for you). The setting is in an alternate version of the American Southwest that has a royal kingdom.

The novel is pretty long; I got tired of clicking to the next line (as there are often 50 or more lines between choices) so I decompiled and read it. It has three acts, and includes a surprising transformation partway through.

There is a lot of worldbuilding here, and the characters felt distinct and memorable. I felt like it could have used a bit more interactivity, even if it was just letting us comment on events. But the art was well-done.

This is a Spring Thing choice based game from a while back. It's a choice-based story about your friend and your stepbrother (a trans man) who get romantically involved while in high school.

This relationship is not a good one. The boyfriend becomes increasingly possessive as your stepbrother draws away from society. Things get physically bad.

The writing is expressive and descriptive but has some typos scattered throughout it. There are enough options that it feels like you have some real agency in the game but that is of course balanced by the fact that you can't always make someone make the right choice in a relationship. Interesting read. Contains some strong profanity.

This is a relatively brief Inform game written with lush language and originally entered into Spring Thing many years ago.

Every word is dripping with luxury. You are a Khan and have excellent food and wine and everything you'd ever want at your feet.

The game is pretty short, but has some surprising events in that brief time. I'd say that it's highly unusual for both its subject matter and its style of language.

It is mostly polished, with a distinct voice, but some default responses sneak in that contrast harshly with the desired tone. The interactivity is also difficult to guess at times.

However, it is descriptive and captured my fancy, and I could see myself playing again.

This game is quite unusual in its structure. You can start out reading intros for different characters. While playing the game, you often switch between characters. The walkthrough has many segments that are just waiting, as this game alternates between being on rails and requiring you to guess the action that most interestingly continues the story. Fortunately, there are parts where it gives you bolded options to move forward.

The idea is that you are different people on a starship that is being hailed by opposing ships. You have to figure out what the other ships want and deal with their demands.

The game is interesting but a bit confusing and hard to play. I am glad I played it, though, and think it shows that the author put a lot of good work into this.